Pablo Casals decided to withstand Franco and the Spanish fascist regime. He definitely stopped playing and refused all kinds of distinctions awarded by the Allies after the defeat of Nazi Germany, considering that his people was still suffering under the yoke of the dictator. Obeying his conscience, he started a new period of exile in Prades, a blessed, isolated and above all Catalan village.

Various messengers came to Prades in order to make  the Master change his decision. He would invariably answer : « it is not a matter of money, it is just a matter of morality ». The violinist Alexander Schneider finally tried his luck and spent three days in Prades with Pau Casals, offering him astronomical sums. New refusal. Schneider submitted him a proposal from the pianist Mieczyslaw Horzowksi: « you can’t condemn your art to silence. Since you don’t want to leave Prades we shall come there, a group of musicians, in order to celebrate the bicentenary of Bach’s death ». The festival was born in 1950…